2017 has been an exciting and progressive year for rock and contemporary music at Logan Park. 

Our school bands have been involved in exciting activities and have been successful within them. First of these is the nationwide Smokefree Rockquest competition. Our school bands Carmina and Painted Blind placed 1st and 2nd respectively, out of a competition of more than 25 Dunedin based school bands. Carmina are an alternative grunge/folk/jazz band made up of Barney Connolly on lead vocals, guitar and piano, Jack Wing on lead guitar, Bjorn Bargemann on bass guitar and Benny Holloway on drums and backing vocals. Painted Blind are a folk-pop band made up of Neive Strang on lead vocals, Cuba Rust on acoustic guitar, Rikke Kikkawa-McLeod on violin and Mary Locker on piano. The school band Solid Merit also entered in the Smokefree Rockquest competition.

Other highlights included:

The Otago Secondary Schools Music Festival featured a performance from Carmina, amongst the choral, orchestral and jazz groups. Towards the end of the third term, 5 students and 2 teachers from the ARA Music College in Christchurch visited our school and put on an exemplary performance for all of our music students. Also 10 music students were chosen for a songwriting course provided by legendary Dunedin musician Shayne Carter who was a member of classic Flying Nun band Straitjacket Fits. Another event that Painted Blind entered in was the SGCNZ/Morrison Music Trust Shakespeare composition competition, where they entered a song inspired by a Shakespeare play. They placed 1st in the composition category and they were crowned the ‘Supreme Winners’ band. Members Rikke and Cuba flew up to Wellington where the song was played over the speakers at the Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival. Painted Blind also placed in the top 40 in the Play it Strange songwriting competition.

Throughout the year our music prefects organised successful after school and outdoor concerts, with school bands, duos and soloists playing original music as well as performances from other musicians playing covers and classical music.